Ravenloft
Ravenloft is a fictional place, a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a pocket dimension or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land pieces called "domains", brought together by a mysterious force known only as the Dark Powers. Each domain is tailored to and mystically ruled by a being called a Darklord who is forever trapped and surrounded by magical mists surrounding the domain. Strahd Von Zarovich, a vampire in the original AD&D Ravenloft I6 module 1983, became the first Darklord, both ruler and prisoner of his own personal domain of Barovia. How Count Von Zarovich became the darklord of Barovia was detailed in the novel, I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire. As originally established in the Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set known as "the Black Box" released in 1990, The Ravenloft campaign setting was located in the Ethereal Plane. As a physical manifestation of that plane, lands, monsters and even people were created out of the mysterious mists, and the realm acted as a prison where one could enter or be transported, but means of escape were few. Other Ravenloft Domains and Darklords were eventually added in various AD&D 2nd edition (and then later in 3rd edition) products establishing a core continent attached around Barovia which could be traveled to by others if their respective lords allowed entering or leaving their borders; while some Domains remained isolated in the mists and were referred to as Islands. Setting Ravenloft is primarily a Gothic horror setting. Dungeon Masters are encouraged to use scenes that build apprehension and fear, culminating in the eventual face-to-face meeting with the nameless evil. Characters have a much greater significance attached to their acts, especially if they are morally impure, as they risk coming under the influence of the Dark Powers (through the game process called "dark powers checks") and gradually transforming themselves into figures of evil. The magical mists of Ravenloft could appear anywhere in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, drawing evil-doers (or player characters) into the Ravenloft setting. One exception is the phlogiston of the Spelljammer setting.Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition The Polyhedron magazine, issue 151. The phlogiston blocks all planar travel, but the Ravenloft mists can appear in deep space inside crystal shells, according to the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook.Complete Spacefarer's Handbook The Dark Powers The Dark Powers are a malevolent force who control the Demiplane of Dread. Their exact nature and number are deliberately kept vague, allowing for plot development in accordance with the Gothic tradition of storytelling – where the heroes are frequently outclassed and outnumbered by unknowable evil forces beyond their control. The Dark Powers most frequently serve as a plot device for Ravenloft, especially concerning the Darklords, the visible rulers of the Ravenloft Demiplane. Where the player characters are often tormented and opposed by the Darklords, the Darklords are themselves tormented and opposed by the Dark Powers. Of course, the difference lies in order of power—while many D&D adventures focus on allowing a band of heroes to prevail over a Darklord (much as in the spirit of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula), no such victory over the Dark Powers seems possible, or even conceivable, for the Darklords. Vecna and Lord Soth "escaped" Ravenloft, but are the only two Darklords known to have done so; Vecna by attaining the status of Greater God (and thus becoming too powerful for the Dark Powers to contain) and Lord Soth by ignoring his domain and punishment, causing the Dark Powers to lose interest in imprisoning him, and agents of his former curse on the world of Krynn coming to collect him. Most frequently, the Dark Powers make their wishes and intentions known through subtle manipulations of fate. Thus, Barovia's vampire lord Strahd von Zarovich's many attempts to win back his love, Tatyana, are doomed to failure, but the Dark Powers arrange such that he never truly loses hope. Each time, for example, Strahd's own actions may be partially culpable for his failure, and as such he may go through crippling self-recrimination, rather than cursing the gods solely and giving up. Most other Darklords have similar tales of frustration, kept all the more unbearable because the flicker of the possibility of success is never truly extinguished. Not all Darklords acknowledge the Dark Powers directly, however. Strahd, for example, in his own memoirs, speaks only of a force known as Death, who mocks him with the voices of his family and former colleagues throughout his life. Vlad Drakov, the Darklord of Falkovnia whose military expeditions are doomed to constant failure, seems even to be totally oblivious to any non-mortal factors in his repeated defeats. The Dark Powers also seem capable of non-evil manipulations. Although their machinations are often directly responsible for the misery of many of Ravenloft's inhabitants, they also appear to play a role as dispensers of justice. Some tales of innocents who have escaped Ravenloft for happier environs are attributed to the Dark Powers, who have judged a being worthy of reward and release from their misty domain. The precise nature of the Dark Powers of Ravenloft is never explicitly described in the game material, with the exception of a few of the novels based on the setting, and even those are considered non-canon . In a sense, the Dark Powers are intended to be eternal unknowns, an array of mercurial, unforeseeable, and inscrutable wills whose motives and actions the player characters cannot hope to understand. History The first appearance of the setting was in Ravenloft, a stand-alone Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure module (no. I6), published in 1983. It was popular enough to spawn a 1986 sequel, Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill, and an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebooks novel, Master of Ravenloft, the same year. Ravenloft was launched as a full-fledged campaign setting, for AD&D 2nd Edition, in 1990, with the Realm of Terror boxed set, popularly known as the "Black Box", and winner of the Origins Award in 1991 for "Best Graphic Presentation of a Roleplaying Game, Adventure, or Supplement of 1990". The campaign setting was revised twice during AD&D 2nd Edition: first as the Ravenloft Campaign Setting or "Red Box", then as the Domains of Dread hardback. In 1994, Ravenloft spun off into a sub-setting called Masque of the Red Death, set on Gothic Earth, an Edgar Allan Poe-influenced alternative Earth of the 1890s, where fantasy creatures and magic exist in the shadows of civilization. TSR also published a series of novels set in Ravenloft. Each was typically focused on one of the darklords that inhabited the Ravenloft world, with several focusing on the figure of Count Strahd von Zarovich. Many of these early novels were by authors who would later receive wider fame as horror/dark fantasy authors. These authors have included Elaine Bergstrom, P. N. Elrod, Christie Golden, and Laurell K. Hamilton. D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast (parent company of TSR) in 2000 licensed the Ravenloft brand to White Wolf Publishing, which released (under its Sword & Sorcery Studios and later Arthaus imprints) versions of the setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition d20 System rules (as Ravenloft Campaign Setting – Core Rulebook) in 2001, and for Dungeons & Dragons Version 3.5 (as Ravenloft – Player's Handbook – v.3.5 Core Campaign Setting) in 2003. The campaign settings published by White Wolf introduced a number of alterations, many due to conflicts with existing Wizards of the Coast intellectual property. Specific references to D&D-specific deities were replaced with new names in the White Wolf Ravenloft settings (for example, Bane was changed to the Lawgiver). The license to the Ravenloft trademark reverted to Wizards of the Coast on August 15, 2005, but White Wolf retained the right to continue to sell its back stock until June 2006. The timing of this reversion meant that the Ravenloft supplement Van Richten's Guide to the Mists did not see print. Instead, it was released by White Wolf as a free download in late September 2005. The majority of the Van Richten's Guide series had already been published by TSR in the 1990s, before White Wolf's involvement. In October 2006, Wizards of the Coast released Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, a hardcover version of the original 1st Ed. adventure, updated for the Dungeons & Dragons v.3.5 rule set. This 2006 version includes maps from the original Ravenloft adventure, and new character-generation options. Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is a stand-alone supplement set for any D&D worlds, and only requires the three core books for usage. This book's setting is distinct from the Ravenloft of the White Wolf product line. In 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced the printing of two new Ravenloft novels for 2008, Black Crusade and The Sleep of Reason, fueling more speculation. A short story by Ari Marmell, "Before I Wake", based on the realms of Darkon, Lamordia, and Bluetspur was released on October 31, 2007, on the Wizards of the Coast website as a special for Halloween; it featured characters inspired by H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. In September 2008, it was announced in Wizard of the Coast's Digital Insider no. 6 that Ravenloft would be re-introduced to 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons, in the October issue of the Dragon online magazine. The Dungeons & Dragons 4th Ed. supplement Manual of the Planes (2008) established that in the 4th Ed. retconned cosmology, the Domains of Dread (and by extension the Ravenloft setting) are now located within the Shadowfell, a mirror-world of death and gloom lying adjacent to the mortal realm. However, no Ravenloft campaign-based material beyond this was released by Wizards of the Coast for D&D 4th Ed. The only official Ravenloft related release was the Castle Ravenloft Board Game in 2010 using a simplified version of 4th edition rules, the first in the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure System board game series. A standalone Ravenloft Roleplaying Game, based on the D&D 4th Ed. rules, was scheduled for publication in late 2011, but the product was never released. A new adventure for D&D 5th Ed., titled Curse of Strahd, was released in March 2016. It was developed in-house by the Wizards of the Coast team, led by Christopher Perkins, with story contributions by original creators Tracy and Laura Hickman. Designed to be a retelling of the original no. I6 Ravenloft adventure module, Curse of Strahd expanded the content into a much larger sandbox, detailing several new towns, characters, and subplots in Barovia to provide enough content to take players from level 1 to level 10. The established Ravenloft Campaign setting of previous editions was ignored. This adventure set in Barovia is placed in the default campaign for 5th edition of Forgotten Realms. Official products Ravenloft is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure module for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition) written by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman published by TSR, Inc. in 1983. It detailed a vampire, Count Strahd Von Zarovich and his castle, Ravenloft. Listed as the second greatest D&D game adventure of all time,Mona, Erik; Jacobs, James; Dungeon Design Panel (2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon. Paizo Publishing (published November 2004) (116): 68–81. it was a popular best seller. A sequel, Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill AD&D adventure module was published in 1986. Strahd became one of the most enduring and iconic villains of the Dungeons & Dragons game.Bulmahn, Jason; Jacobs, James; Mike McArtor; Mona, Erik; Schneider, F. Wesley; Todd Stewart; Jeremy Walker (September 2007). "1d20 Villains: D&D's Most Wanted; Preferably Dead". Dragon. Pazio. 32(4) (359): 54–69. These adventures later served as the basis for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition) campaign setting called "Ravenloft", first introduced in the 1990 release of the Ravenloft: Realm of Terror boxed set. Many Ravenloft related products including game modules, campaign expansions, accessories, novels, and other materials have since been published through several editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR) was started in 1973, founded by Gary Gygax, inventor of Dungeons & Dragons.Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons. October 6, 2015. Michael Witwer TSR, Inc. published D&D products for 24 years 1974-1997, beginning with the release of the [[Dungeons & Dragons (1974)|original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set]] (commonly abbreviated OD&D) in 1974, and was purchased in 1997 by Wizards of the Coast, Inc (WotC). WotC continued use the TSR name on their D&D products until the year 2000 and the end of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition. Dungeons & Dragons celebrated it's 25th anniversary in 1999 with the release of several collector's edition products near the end of AD&D 2nd edition run. The "Advanced" portion of the title (long used to differentiate from the "classic" simpler D&D rules started with the Basic boxed set in 1977, itself a consolidation of the OD&D rules of 1974) was dropped beginning with the release of the 3rd edition of D&D released by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and all versions were consolidated into a unified Dungeons & Dragons product. WotC began the open gaming license, allowing third party companies to publish Dungeons & Dragons products, under the D20 system. In 3rd and 3.5 editions of D&D, Ravenloft Campaign setting was continued by Sword and Sorcery Studios (S&SS) was an imprint of White Wolf, Inc., used to publish its d20 System & Open Gaming License D&D material. Wizards of the Coast was purchased by Hasbro, Inc. The end of the Open gaming License meant that the last S&SS (White Wolf) Ravenloft product Van Richten's Guide to the Mists did not see print but was released instead as a free PDF on the internet. Wizards of the Coast also published stand alone 3.5 edition, 4th edition, and 5th edition Ravenloft products. Following list excludes several gaming miniatures, comics or collectible cards that have been released bearing the Ravenloft logo or that have ties to Ravenloft characters. TSR Wizards of the Coast Novels A number of tie-in novels were released, set in the Demiplane of Dread: ) * Knight of the Black Rose (December 1991), by James Lowder ( ) * Dance of the Dead (June 1992), by Christie Golden ( ) * Heart of Midnight (December 1992), by J. Robert King ( ) * Tapestry of Dark Souls (March 1993), by Elaine Bergstrom ( ) * Carnival of Fear (July 1993), by J. Robert King ( ) * I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire (September 1993), by P. N. Elrod ( ) * The Enemy Within (February 1994), by Christie Golden ( ) * Mordenheim (May 1994), by Chet Williamson ( ) * Tales of Ravenloft (September 1994), Edited by Brian Thomsen ( ) * Tower of Doom (November 1994), by Mark Anthony ( ) * Baroness of Blood (March 1995), by Elaine Bergstrom ( ) * Death of a Darklord (June 1995), by Laurell K. Hamilton ( ) * Scholar of Decay (December 1995), by Tanya Huff ( ) * King of the Dead (March 1996), by Gene DeWeese ( ) * To Sleep with Evil (September 1996), by Andria Cardarelle ( ) * Lord of the Necropolis (November 1997), by Gene DeWeese ( ) * Shadowborn (March 1998), by Carrie Bebris and William Connors ( ) * I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin (June 1998), by P. N. Elrod ( ) * Spectre of the Black Rose (March 1999), by James Lowder and Voronica Whitney-Robinson ( ) * Before I Wake, by Ari Marmell (October 2007) A short story released for free on the Wotc website with the announcement of new novels in publication. * Heaven's Bones (Dominion) (September 2008), by Samantha Henderson ( ) * Mithras Court: A Novel of the Mists (Dominion) (November 2008), by David A. Page ( ) * Black Crusade, by Ari Marmell released for free on the Wizards of the Coast website }} Video games * Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession PC game(1994) * Ravenloft: Stone Prophet PC game(1995) * Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft PlayStation 1 game(1996) * Neverwinter (video game) expansion module Ravenloft. Windows, XBox One, PS4 (June 26, 2018) Reception Game designer Rick Swan commented in 1994 that when the Ravenloft setting first came out, it "just didn't seem special, a Forgotten Realms variant with a few more bats", but after supplements like Forbidden Lore, The Created, and the Van Richten's Guide series, Swan felt that "the Ravenloft campaign has proven to be a credible adventure alternative for players interested in the dark side of the AD&D game. Though it lacks the flamboyance of Call of Cthulhu and the, er, bite of Vampire, the Ravenloft setting remains the hobby's most enduring fusion of horror and fantasy." Darker Days Radio declared Ravenloft the "greatest D&D campaign setting," citing the unique gothic horror elements and classic villains such as Azalin Rex. Ravenloft game overview. See also * List of Ravenloft characters References Sources * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * External links * Fraternity of Shadows – Founded in 2003 after the Secrets of the Kargatane site closed, this is the most important setting fan website. * Mistipedia – The Fraternity of Shadows' Ravenloft wiki. * Secrets of the Kargatane – no longer updated, this website was once one of the largest sources of Ravenloft information on the Internet, as well as being the Official 3rd Edition site as designated by Wizards of the Coast, until the Ravenloft setting was licensed to Arthaus Games. * TSR Archive AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft product list * TSR Archive D&D 3rd Edition Ravenloft product list * Wizards of the Coast Official Dungeons & Dragons page Category:Dark fantasy role-playing games Category:Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings Category:Fictional dimensions Category:Horror role-playing games Category:Origins Award winners *Ravenloft